Instructions to Method Authors of First Action Official MethodsSM

For authors of new First Action Official MethodsSM, congratulations in having your method granted Official Method status under AOAC’s standards development process. Here, you will learn how to submit it to the Publications Department to have it codified as an AOAC Official MethodsSM, and achieve AOAC’s objectives of publication.

1. Submit your method within 2 weeks of approval, with any changes recommended by the ERP, to the AOAC Publications Department. Your method must be received by the Publications Department in order to be codified and published as an AOAC Official MethodsSM. Send the method in a Word file (PDFs are not acceptable for publication purposes.)

If the ERP suggest revisions, contingent upon approval of your method, make these changes before submission. (Sending a method that needs revision will only delay publication.)

2. Submit your validation report for Journal publication along with your method, or if a manuscript needs to be prepared, notify the AOAC Publications Department as to when your validation report will be submitted. AOAC strongly encourages the development of full papers of supporting data and validation studies for all adopted methods. Validation reports are published in the Journal and become part of the open literature, and this best assures methods a worldwide audience.

3. Submit the validation report for peer review and publication in the Journal, by clicking here for the AOAC Publications Department’s ScholarOne site and follow the step-by-step instructions found there. A signed copyright transfer form must accompany all validation reports to be published in the Journal. A signed copyright transfer form is needed so that AOAC has the rights to publish it.

Your validation report will be peer reviewed by two ERP members designated by the ERP chair. Articles are accepted as is, rejected, or, most likely, accepted with minor changes. Expect to get the status of your validation report 5-7 weeks after submission. You will need to address any comments carefully, and/or provide rebuttal. Once your validation report of Official MethodsSM is accepted for Journal publication, we will copy-edit and typeset it in the style and format of a Journal article, and you will then receive an author proof electronically.

4. Check the Journal author proof you receive carefully, and for any questions that may have arisen during copy-editing, insert your answers/corrections following the instructions in the Journal’s Author Center. Once you sign off, your full validation report will be scheduled for publication in the Journal, both online and in print, plus the typeset method will be extracted from the validation report, and we will use it in publishing your method in the Official Methods of Analysis. We will also publish the method (only) in the Journal in a special section, which is published twice per year and devoted to the AOAC standard development process (January/February and July/August issues). Please note that if your method or validation report has been previously published by another organization, you’ll need to obtain permission from the publisher, prior to submission.